Modern offices, factories and other workplaces typically have at least some shared rooms or other workspaces. Often, these shared spaces can consume a relatively large amount of energy, even when they are not in use. Heating and air conditioning unused spaces can be expensive and wasteful, for example. Moreover, given that a typical desktop computer can consume a kilowatt or more of energy every hour, unused computing resources can be expensive if they are not powered down after use. Lights, fans, humidifiers/dehumidifiers and other electrical devices can also consume additional energy if they are left on when the space is not in use.
Some office spaces make use of movement sensors for activating or deactivating lights, but these can often be unreliable. If meeting attendees remain seated for a relatively long time, for example, many movement sensors will automatically darken the room even though the meeting is still going on. Other attempts to automate the energy consumption of shared workspaces have been ineffectual. Numerous home and office products allow lights and other resources to be remotely activated, but these typically rely upon manual human operation, without regard to resources that are shared between different people. Further, various scheduling programs exist for scheduling the use of meeting rooms and other shared resources, but at present these do not help in managing the energy consumption of such spaces.
It is therefore desirable to create systems, devices and processes for more efficient control of one or more resources operating within a building or other workplace. These and other features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.